Where does “pretender” come from?
Pretender comes from Middle French pretendre, from Latin praetendere meaning to put forward or allege, derived from the verb teneo meaning to hold.
pretender (English): A person who professes beliefs and opinions that...
Definitions
- A person who professes beliefs and opinions that...
Ancestry of “pretender”, step by step
pretender traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English tender
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | tender | Sensitive or painful to the touch; Easily bruised... |
| 2 | English | tend | To make a tender of; to offer or tender; To be... |
| 3 | Middle English | tenden | To ignite; to light or set on fire |
| 4 | Middle English | attenden | to attend |
| 5 | Old French | atendre | to wait |
| 6 | Latin | attendō | to pay attention, attend (to), direct the attention towards |
| 7 | Latin | ad- | to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it... |
| 8 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 9 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 10 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |
via English pretend
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | pretend | To claim, to allege, especially when falsely or... |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | pretendre | to claim |
| 3 | Latin | praetendere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 4 | Latin | praetendo | I stretch forth or forward; I extend; I spread... |
| 5 | Latin | tendo | I stretch, stretch out, distend, extend; I... |
| 6 | Latin | tentus | stretched; stretched out; extended; distended;... |
| 7 | Latin | teneō | to hold, have; to grasp |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | tenēō | to hold |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ten- | to stretch, to extend |